Sterling Heights Shop Suffers $50,000 Loss To Card Theft

Children’s trading card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and even going back to the original Magic: The Gathering, are things that are meant to be fun and bring people together. But with the recent rise in scalping at local stores, and a slew of break-ins that have happened to locally owned businesses, the game of Pokémon is quickly becoming something that is a bit of an epidemic in the trading card game community.

Recently, a thief broke into a Sterling Heights store, First Edition Finds, and stole the owner's personal collection, amongst other selectively grabbed cards, which were valued at around $50,000.

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Why Is Yu-Gi-Oh! Hurting Businesses?

It’s acts like these that will eventually ruin locally owned trading card shops. It’s already hard enough with shops that carry Yu-Gi-Oh!, since most of their product immediately goes down in price the moment it goes on sale. The product will end up rotting on the shelves, and ultimately, the owners will lose money.

Why Are People Stealing Pokémon Cards?

Now, Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering card shops have to worry about people breaking in and stealing their product. This recently happened to Super Hideaway Games in Holland and Rocket Comics in Kalamazoo.

If things like this keep up, we will start to see fewer and fewer mom-and-pop shops. As the owner, Jonathan Gappy told Local 4 Detroit, the theft has destroyed his business:

He really got us where it hurts. He took all of our vintage, all of our older stuff, a lot of stuff from us. A lot of these cards are first-ever printed, from base sets to Team Rocket unlimited first editions. It’s just heartbreaking. I honestly felt defeated the amount of time that me and my wife had put into this just building it up. It’s really only been us two and a couple close friends that really have helped us get to where we’re at.

Many store owners feel like the platform Whatnot has not only impacted their ability to get products, but now local trading card shops are having to worry about break-ins happening and products being stolen. Gappy is offering a $15,000 reward for anyone who can identify the thief.